As the cost of real estate in cities rises, so too does the cost of providing parking. As the cost of providing parking spaces rises, the ratio of new development to new parking spaces in cities decreases. For those individuals or businesses owners that require parking to be available for themselves, their employees, or their customers, often their only option is to acquire or build one or more reserved parking spaces, which then sit empty and unused when a reserved vehicle is not parked there.
There is a general desire for systems, apparatus and methods that can:                a) Provide a simple intuitive method for allocating and reserving parking spaces.        b) Automatically recognize the vehicle identity without the need for human intervention.        c) Communicate complex messages back to the vehicle operator to direct parking activities.        d) Switch to a pay parking space management system when there is no active reservation in place.        e) Automatically handle billing, identification of parking violations, and ticketing at a minimum cost to the owner or manager of the parking space(s).        